


Balance

by Lavosse



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Jon being a bad flatmate, Tea, fluff?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-23 03:01:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13778268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavosse/pseuds/Lavosse
Summary: More than one member of the Archives calls Georgie a refuge. She hopes no one else will make a habit of it.





	Balance

Ding.

  
Every time the doorbell rang, Georgie jumped. It didn’t matter that no-one suspicious (other than Jon himself) had called on her yet; she was just jumpier since Jon had arrived. The visitor got a peephole examination first, because Georgie was not a fool, but she couldn’t actually see anyone, as if they were standing off to the side.

  
She steeled herself. It was just a neighbor, or the postman with a package she had to sign for, or the lady down the street whose dog had gotten out again. It could be anyone!

  
It could be anyone.

  
She opened the door cautiously.

  
Fortunately for Georgie, it was not anyone. It was Melanie King.

  
“Oh, thank god it’s you, Georgie,” Melanie said. She was professionally dressed, as Melanie went, her hair tidy; yet still Georgie couldn’t shake the impression that she looked exhausted, drained. “I was worried Jon would answer the door.”

  
“Jon’s at his flat tidying up,” Georgie assured her, warier by the second. “Why don’t you come in and tell me what’s happened.”  
Melanie’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Thank you.”

  
Even if Melanie looked like a storm had hit her, it was good to see her. It made a warmth unfold in Georgie’s chest – not a warmth of affection, not a comfortable warmth, but a hot, prickling relief; like the sweep of heated discomfort over one who has been struggling for breath for far too long.

  
“It’s good to see you’re still in one piece,” Georgie said. It was a magnificent understatement.

  
“Yeah, healed up nice,” Melanie said. She didn’t sound like she’d really heard Georgie’s words. Georgie shot her a look as she closed the door.

  
“Got shot by a ghost in India,” she clarified, which really didn’t clarify anything.

  
“So it’s true what they said?”

  
Melanie looked irked. “I don’t know, what did they say?”

  
“That you really went off the beaten path. You think you’re hunting monsters and shit.”

  
Lips pressed together, Melanie looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “You’re harbouring that idiot,” she said, “and you still think I’m mad? I came to you because I thought you’d know what was going on.”

They were still standing in the entryway, which was not a proper place to have an argument.

  
“Would you like some tea?” Georgie asked. She’d left the tea and breakfast things out for Jonathan when she’d gone out, and come back to find them still out, untouched, and Jon gone without a note.

  
“What the _fuck_ ,” Melanie said. It was not really a question, and Georgie quite understood the feeling.

  
“Sorry, I know. I just mean – let’s get tea, and sit down and talk, like adults? I don’t want to fight with you in the doorway.”

  
Melanie assented with a shrug of her shoulders.

  
The water had grown quite cold, by this hour, and Georgie heated up two mugs, hating the way the awkward silence made it difficult to move in her own kitchen. Melanie took her tea with sugar. When Georgie handed the mug to her, the corner of her mouth pulled, like she wasn’t sure if what she was feeling merited a smile or not. Georgie hoped it was a point in her favour that she’d remembered.

  
They sat on the sofa. Melanie took a big gulp, even though the tea was very hot; Georgie sipped.

  
At last, Georgie made herself speak.

  
“Sorry about that,” she said. “I’m really just....curious. I want to hear all about it, just to catch up, you know? And that really is what they were saying. I wasn’t just...making stuff up. I know you’re hunting monsters.”

  
“I’m sure they said worse,” Melanie mumbled, and then: “Listen, I’m really here to talk about Jon. We can catch up afterwards, if he doesn’t get back.”

  
Georgie had said some things when Melanie started getting off track. It made sense, if she didn’t want to socialise any more than she had to.

  
“What about Jon?”

  
Setting her coffee down on the side table, Melanie folded her hands. The Admiral jumped up onto the sofa between them.

  
“He got in contact with me before he came back to work,” she said. “He didn’t tell me where he was staying, but he was wearing a What the Ghost t-shirt. It was kind of a dead giveaway.”

  
Georgie couldn’t help a little smile. “I was happy to throw merch at him, I just wish he’d told me what was going on earlier.”

  
“You’re telling me!” Melanie cried, throwing up her hands and startling the Admiral. “They didn’t give me a word of warning before I signed on to their stupid ghost team!”

  
“You’re working for Jon?” Georgie asked, half in horror.

  
“With Jon, not for him. Yeah.”

  
Melanie downed the rest of her coffee as though it were a stiff drink. “The real problem is that none of them have got any perspective. They’re all trapped in an echo chamber, you know? No opposing viewpoints, no fresh eyes–” this sent her into a spiral of choking laughter, from which it took a moment to recover. Georgie had an idea why this was funny, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel the humor of it. “I think I know what you mean,” she said. “What do I have to do with it?”

  
Melanie took a deep breath, the hysteria dying as quickly as it had risen. “I wanted to make sure you stay in contact with Jon,” she said, and with hesitation, “and with me. He told me you know…about the top-secret spookiness,” she waved an arm around to indicate the vastness of said spookiness, “and I need to make sure I have someone to ground myself with. I can’t – I can’t become like him. Like Tim.”

  
“And you thought of me.”

  
Looking lost, Melanie said, “You’re the best choice I have. And you’ve always been trustworthy. Except with the Sarah Thing, but I don’t think that was your fault.”

  
“The Sarah Thing?”

  
Melanie waved it off. “Later.”

  
“So I’m supposed to be, what, your therapist friend?”

  
“No, no, I just – lunch, once a week? A good chat? I want to keep each other informed, and I thought that if you didn’t mind keeping in touch with Jon too, I thought I’d ask –” she bit her lip, looking at Georgie pleadingly as if begging her to understand.

  
“We need support,” she said. “And I think there are people – things – who really don’t want us to have that, to have any advantage. This is just an instinct, but I think you’re going to be important.”

  
“Alright,” Georgie said. She had gotten that impression from giving her statement -- that her past might mean very different things than she had thought.

  
“What?”

“Sounds easy enough, and if I’m already going to be important, it might as well be helping you.”

  
All of a sudden, she had an armful of Melanie. Georgie hugged her back as best she could with a cup of tea, grateful that it hadn’t spilled.

  
Melanie’s hair was soft, and Melanie was soft, and suddenly the whole world seemed soft, or at least softer; Georgie pulled away to set her tea down and then drew Melanie back into the embrace.

  
“You’re going to be alright,” she said. “If anyone’s going to be alright, it’s you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I will fight all of y'all for Georgie Barker's hand in marriage, and that's a fact.  
> <3


End file.
